The subject of glass refining and utilization of that glass in finished products has been the subject, obviously, of a great deal of literature and many issued patents. Few, if any, of these have dealt with the problems of pollution control, i.e. the decrease of solid emissions from the stack, and raw material transportation from the standpoint of finding a technically acceptable way to reduce each.
Certain prior art patents have dealt with the utilization of a two-step process for formation of glass, particularly to improve the quality of that glass, but these have not dealt with the problems discussed here.
For example, a number of patents describe the formation of pellets of the materials employed in the formation of glass in order to improve the uniformity of the glass batch, and, thus, the overall quality of the glass produced. These include, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,543,770, Hilbert; 2,062,907, Jeffery et al; 2,366,473, Bair; and 2,970,924 Fox et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,887, Mod et al., describes a similar process where, in addition, the bar or rod which is formed of the raw materials for the glass batch is refined at about 1600.degree. to 1700.degree.C and the thus refined glass is either stored for later use or is formed into particles for later processing. In a manner similar to Mod et al., McKinley, U.S. Pat. No. 1,646,488 describes the formation of cullet in a first processing stage, followed by melting of this cullet and its use in forming glass sheets.
None of these prior art patents has shown a method for reducing transportation costs, and reducing pollution near large population centers in a glass article manufacturing process.